We keep hearing that “SEO is dead”. But is it true? In the latest episode of the Marketing4eCommerce podcast (Tertulias Summer Edition), Rubén Bastón brought together three experts to discuss it: Juan González Villa, CEO of USEO; Esther Checa, Global Innovation Director at t2ó; and our CEO, Alex Karnatowski.

How AI changed the way we search

Since ChatGPT arrived at the end of 2022, the way people search online has changed. Google answered with AI Overviews and AI Mode, and traffic from AI assistants has grown quickly. The question on the table: will people stop searching on Google and do everything in ChatGPT or other LLMs such as Perplexity?

The impact depends on the sector

Alex explained that the impact of AI Overviews varies a lot by content type and sector. In eCommerce, sites are not seeing the same traffic decline, because transactional searches have not yet been affected by AI Overviews in the same way. Informational content is a different story: Juan González Villa pointed to organic traffic drops of up to 35% for some informational sites.

The basics still matter

Alex also stressed that the hype around AI search is real, but many businesses still have not solved the basics of their digital strategy. For most brands, the change is progressive, not an overnight revolution.

Search is becoming multimodal

Esther Checa described how search is moving beyond text: users search with images and voice, and AI agents and new browsers are starting to compete for traffic. SEO can no longer be limited to Google; platforms like TikTok and YouTube matter too.

What brands should do

The panel agreed on calm, realism and continuous adaptation. Brands need a wider view of user behaviour, and new metrics that measure influence and engagement, not only traffic.

Listen to the full episode

The full podcast is available on YouTube and Spotify, with a summary on Marketing4eCommerce.